From Beechcraft to Boeing –
With EFT, the transition is smooth.

Becoming a professional pilot on the flight deck of an airliner is not just a question of completing ground and flight training, and of attaining the required licences. The attributes required to be a safe, efficient and employable member of an airline flight crew demands a set of skills of which flying ability is only one. Professionalism, high personal standards, commitment and actual experience are vital if a trainee pilot is to be successful in ‘landing’ his first airline job (read more about how to become a captain). The flight training organisation must meet the requirements of airlines, and design its training to meet or exceed those requirements.

EFT has based the design of its Airline Pilot Programme™ not merely on consultation with airlines (an ongoing process, which allows us to continuously modify particular details of the APP™ as market conditions demand) – but also on its own experience in successfully training pilots for the career on a flight deck. EFT’s APP™ product development takes into account the unique experience of our own staff and instructors, many of whom have top-level airline and management experience, as well as having trained hundreds of airline cadets for a variety of major airlines in Europe and elsewhere (read more about instructor qualifications).

In addition to meeting requirements for the issue of a JAA ‘frozen’ ATPL, as well as equivalent FAA ratings, the programme incorporates other elements which exceed the minima required for licence issue. The reason? Once you have graduated from EFT’s Airline Pilot Programme™, you will be competing for an airline job with highly qualified graduates of similar programmes from many other schools (including Oxford Aviation, BAE Systems, and Lufthansa Flight Training).

What sets EFT’s Airline Pilot Programme™ apart from other programmes?

EFT understands the qualities and attributes sought after by airlines who consistently recruit our cadets – that’s why 95% of APP™ graduates have found airline employment within 6 months of leaving EFT. The key to this success rate (which is unmatched by all of our competitors) is actual flight experience and a real track record of professionalism and captaincy. As an APP™ graduate, you won’t be competing for jobs with low-hour pilots who recently qualified from other ab-initio programmes. Graduates of such courses typically have less than 250 hours of flight experience and are qualified as JAA Multiengine/ Commercial/ Instrument pilots. By contrast, EFT APP™ graduates are dual-qualified as Multiengine/ Commercial/ Instrument pilots under both JAA and FAA licencing systems, and leave with up to 1,500 hours of instructional experience, including experience on multi-engine aircraft and under actual instrument conditions. By becoming an instructor, your professionalism and experience of APP™ graduates exceeds that of cadets from other schools – and this fact is recognised by the airlines. All of those airlines who have recruited APP™ graduates have said that they are interested in receiving CVs from future graduates.

Truths and Myths

The competition amongst flight training organisations for ab-initio students is intense, and even some renowned schools do not hesitate to create unrealistic expectations to get students to sign up for their programme. Before enquiring about the programme at any school, arm yourself with an understanding of the following marketing techniques:

Myth #1: A large training organisation’s own entry tests and selection programme will enhance your chances of getting an airline job by ensuring that you are suitable for this profession.

Truth: Having your own suitability for a flying career assessed by an independent assessment center – independent of a training organisation – makes good sense. By making sure that your attitude and aptitude are suited to flight training and the career of a professional pilot, you can minimise your own training risk. After completion of your training, an airline’s own selection programme will closely resemble the process you have already undergone, with the purpose of finding the most suitable candidates from a large pool of applicants. In short, the aim of any airline-like selection procedure is to seek out quality applicants.

By contrast, a school’s own selection programme is designed to admit as many students as possible to the school – after all, it makes good business sense, and flight training organisations are businesses. The aim is to seek out quantity. This conflict of interests between the airlines and the flight training organisation’s selection processes never has the student’s interests at heart. Even if a flight training organisation claims to use “the same” selection procedures as an airline, this practice would be hurting its own business. The demanding selection procedures traditionally employed by major airlines throughout Europe to select ab-inito cadets have, on average, yielded a “pass-through” rate of less than one per cent. Of course, this is not the case with any school’s selection programme, where acceptance rates are higher by a great order of magnitude. In short, the standards of a school’s entrance selection are much lower, and do not give a picture accurate enough to determine whether you would truly make a good airline pilot or not. Evidence of this fact is easily seen when comparing the airline’s and the school’s selection programme pass rates.

EFT does not use a selection procedure, as long as entrance requirements are met and students display characteristics of good captainship during training. This is a much more reliable indicator of suitability for the profession of airline pilot.

Myth #2: Because of “our relationship with airlines”, only “our” training programme will put you in a good position to find airline employment.

Truth: Different courses and training options are available from various organisations, and almost all meet minimum airline recruitment requirements. Some organisations offer significantly more in addition to these requirements – but the real question is how you can effectively “bridge the gap” between having the minimum required qualifications and actually getting a job! Two factors are decisive: In addition to actual flight experience, airlines like to see evidence of aptitude, committment, high personal standards and professionalism in their future captains. How can an airline minimise the risk of hiring the “wrong” person? By seeing a track record and evidence of the important qualities in the applicants – after all, that is the purpose of a selection procedure.

APP™ graduates leave EFT organisation with up to 1,500 hours of actual flight experience. These hours are gained through renumerated instruction in a professional flight training environment over a period of up to 18 months. By teaching a variety of ratings, and working under challenging conditions, graduates possess solid evidence of captaincy, professionalism, and many other attributes required by an airline. This track record is a more reliable way of establishing applicant suitability than evidence of having attended weekend team building exercises or excursions to an airline or air traffic control unit.

There is currently no school which can guarantee its cadets employment with any airline – regardless of what kind of relationship the school claims to have with the airlines. The reason? No student will inevitably possess the right qualities simply by virtue of having trained at a certain school. By selecting candidates from a ‘preferred’ training school, an airline’s risk would by no means be minimised, or even reduced. Beware, therefore, of claims that airline partnerships actually increase your own chances of getting employed by an airline. Ambiguous marketing-talk, such as “you are guaranteed a good chance of airline employment” or “airline xxx has recruited our entire class of students” has no substance at all, and serves only the school’s purpose.

Myth #3: Airline “endorsement” increases your chances of employment.

Truth: In the past, many airlines ran sponsored courses to create their own captains of the future. These courses were assigned to a variety of training establishments, and most of the large European schools have at some time trained European airline cadets. EFT’s own instructors have trained hundreds of airline-sponsored cadets for major international carriers.

Today, following the events of September 11th, most airlines have been forced to discontinue their sponsorships. Those airlines which still offer them usually require cadets to repay a large part of the training costs after completion of the training.

Some schools use their past involvement in airline sponsorships for the purpose of attracting customers. Sometimes a perception is created that a school’s own ab-initio training programme is “endorsed” by specific airlines, or that their cadets have better chances of airline employment simply by virtue of having been enrolled at that school. This suggestion is false, since airlines will consider any individual who meets or exeeds their requirements for employment. The key to employment is the individual, and not the school where he or she has trained: If you are the right person, finding employment is only a matter of time. Look closely at what “airline endorsement” really means: can the training organisation guarantee you employment with any airline who ‘endorses’ its programme? Is there solid evidence that being enrolled on that an ‘endorsed’ course will even increase your chances of employment with that airline – never mind guarantee it? Will the school refund you money if you are unsuccessful? Ask about specific details, and obtain a written guarantee from the flight training organisation that you’ll be guaranteed employment – or even only an interview – with the airline who is supposed to ‘endorse’ their programme. If you find such a guarantee hard to obtain, the reason could well be that the myth of ‘airline endorsement’ only serves one purpose: attracting new students into a school’s programme.

EFT offers no airline employment guarantees to its APP™ students – because no-one can guarantee an airline job or even interview. However, even in today’s highly competitive job market, 95% of EFT’s APP™ graduates have found employment with an airline in less than six months. This figure is unrivalled by other schools.


Myth #4: Training in USA is not as highly regarded by airlines as training in the UK or Europe.

Truth: There are indeed differences between training in the USA or the UK. The biggest difference is the cost – fuel, maintenance and airport charges are significantly higher in Europe, and this can double the cost of training there. Those students enrolled at very expensive training establishments sometimes think that they get ‘something extra’ from a more expensive school – although they rarely find evidence that they do (there is none).

It is true that weather in the UK does permit more frequent flying under actual instrument conditions (i.e. bad weather). However, this advantage is often being offset by the fact that throughout large periods of the year weather is frequently unsuitable to fly at all. In addition to significantly higher training costs, you spend much more time waiting for the right moment to go flying – sometimes weeks – which extends your course duration, puts you out of recency, and may even result in you requiring re-training. For this reason, most large European schools have both USA and European bases in which to conduct training, and even the biggest supporters of ‘training in the UK’ are actually offering students the option to train in the USA.

Although weather is generally better at USA training locations, it can also be more diverse. During advanced training, students at our Florida, USA base are exposed to tropical weather conditions rarely encountered in the UK.

European regulations are much more prohibitive with regard to training operations than American regulations. To expose students to real-life airline operations at busy airports, it is important that major airports are integrated in the training programme. In the USA, training operations can be conducted at even the largest airports, which provides students with an experience hard to attain in the UK, where major airports (London Heathrow, Gatwick etc.) do not allow training flights. Our EFT base is within short flight time of the Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale International Airports. This is a definite benefit to our APP™ students.